A simple morning routine, from oily skin to dry
The simple version is the whole version: cleanse, moisturize, sunscreen, in that order, every morning — what changes between oily skin and dry skin is never the number of steps, only the wording of each one. Pick a type above and the routine rewrites itself, beginning with the step that plays on this page.
That step is the wash, and it is a different instruction on every type. On oily skin the app asks for «Warm water · pea-size cleanser · foam it» and «Circles everywhere — T-zone, cheeks, chin», and caps the day at «Rinse cool · pat dry · twice a day max». Combination keeps the circles to the T-zone and takes the cheeks quickly. Normal skin gets «Water alone is fine some mornings». Dry skin is told «Cool water only — no cleanser at all» — and every type starts by washing the hands, not the face.
The routine, step by step
+ 2 more steps in the app
The order is not interchangeable — each step has to sit on top of the one before it, which is why the app runs the same three in the same order every morning whatever your skin type. The first of them plays in the player above; the other two are in the app, where the clock paces the routine’s three minutes rather than counting your seconds.
Why three steps and not ten
Three steps and not ten because only three of them are graded strong: LOOKSMAXBRO grades cleansing and moisturizing A and morning sunscreen A, and nothing else that a longer routine adds is graded anywhere near them. The LOOKSMAXBRO habit catalog is where that grade lives, and this page prints the same word.
The second reason is arithmetic. A three-minute routine survives a Tuesday in a way a fifteen-minute one does not, and a routine done every morning for a year beats a longer one abandoned in week three — which is why the app measures the streak rather than the shelf.
Here is everything that changes the skin men actually ask about, each row carrying the grade the LOOKSMAXBRO habit catalog gives it.
- Sunscreen every morning strong The highest-graded step in this routine and in the whole skin category, and the one most men leave out. It slows what daylight accumulates rather than reversing anything already there, a long day outdoors needs it again, and indoor days count too. How much to use and when to put it on is the app’s line, printed on the step itself.
- Cleanse and moisturize, morning and night strong Graded A as well, and deliberately unglamorous: a gentle cleanser, a moisturizer, no scrubbing. It is the base every other step sits on, and the evening half of it — taking the day off before bed — is the same habit running twelve hours later.
- Hands off your face through the day moderate Graded B, and it costs nothing: hands move oil and bacteria onto the skin all day, and picking at a breakout is what turns it into a mark that outlasts it.
- Sleep strong The strongest-graded thing on this page is not something you put on your face. Sleep sets how much water the face holds by morning, and the morning is when most people look at you.
- Water across the day moderate Graded B, and mostly for what it displaces — the sugary drinks it replaces do more for skin than the glass itself.
- Eye cream weak Graded C: hydration and texture around the eye, and not a fix for the shape or the shadow you inherited. It sits in the evening routine, not this one.
- A ten-step morning routine Steps four through ten are essences, toners and serums that carry far weaker evidence than the three below them, and each one is another minute and another thing to react to. Nothing in a longer routine replaces the sunscreen at the end of a short one.
- Scrubbing, and stacking strong actives in the morning harmful Grit, daily exfoliants and a retinoid or an acid piled onto a morning face damage the barrier that the routine exists to protect — red, tight, stinging skin is the barrier saying so. The app’s own card asks for a gentle cleanser and no scrubbing.
Every grade here is the app’s own, out of the habit catalog LOOKSMAXBRO builds its plans from, so nothing here promises more than the evidence behind it, and a row with no chip beside it is one the catalog grades nothing at all. Prescription treatment and procedures are out of scope: LOOKSMAXBRO does not advise on them here or in the app.
- Patch-test anything active — a retinoid, an acid, a vitamin C — on the jawline for a few days before it goes anywhere near the whole face.
- Retinoids belong in the evening routine and never in this one: they leave skin more sensitive to daylight, which is the opposite of what a morning is for.
- Sunscreen wears off. A day indoors is one application; a long day outside, in water or in snow, needs it again.
- Acne that scars, a rash that spreads, a patch that will not heal or a mole that changes belongs to a dermatologist, not to a routine.
- If a product stings, burns or leaves the face red, stop using it — that is not it working.
LOOKSMAXBRO is a grooming app rather than a medical one: nothing on this page diagnoses or treats a skin condition, and none of it replaces a dermatologist.
